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Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast with Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe. Diane is a certified nutrition consultant, and the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo, The 21-Day Sugar Detox, and co-author of Mediterranean Paleo Cooking. Liz is a nutritional therapy practitioner, and the best-selling author of Eat the Yolks and The Purely Primal Skincare Guide. Together, Diane and Liz answer your questions, interview leading health and wellness experts, and share their take on modern paleo living with their friendly and balanced approach. Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content within this podcast are intended as general information only, and are not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Liz Wolfe: Hey everyone, Liz here with Diane as usual. Hi friend.

Diane Sanfilippo: Hey.

Liz Wolfe: Hey there. How are you?

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m doing great.

Liz Wolfe: I feel like we just talked.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I think we did.

Liz Wolfe: I think we did too. Let’s hear from one of our sponsors.

Diane Sanfilippo: Pete’s Paleo is a friend of the Balanced Bites podcast. They’re bacon is insanely delicious, and sugar free, and their premade paleo meals make your life so much easier when everything is getting busy and getting real food on the table is still a top priority, as it should be. Pete’s Paleo is now offering a 30-day gut healing kit containing bone broth, gelatin gummies, instant organic soup packs, and an E-cookbook. It’s the perfect complement to any anti-inflammatory diet. Get yours today at www.guthealingkit.com. Use code GRABACUPPABROTH to get $25 off; that’s an amazing deal. It’s GRABACUPPABROTH, C-U-P-P-A. And you can grab that code any time at www.BalancedBites.com to just read it and make sure you’re typing it in right. You can also use code BALANCEDBITES to get $5 off any of their regular meal plans. Check out www.PetesPaleo.com today. Pete’s Paleo; bringing fine dining to your cave.

1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [2:09]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, Diane what are your updates this week?

Diane Sanfilippo: Ooh, so updates, pretty much the same as last week. And I think by the time this episode airs we’ll be pretty close to PaleoFx, so PaleoFx will be next week. This episode is going to air on the 19th. So I’ll see you guys there, and I’m not sure that there will be any seats left at this point for the Badass Business Mastermind Event, but there we go.

And just a quick other heads up about the Master Class; just wanted to remind you guys you can head to http://BalancedBites.com/masterclass to sign up for the inside information when we have some beta tester openings for the program. We will be letting our emailing list there know first, so make sure you guys are over there; http://BalancedBites.com/masterclass. I think that’s about it. What about you? What’s going on?

Liz Wolfe: Nothing.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: I can’t think of anything. By the time this airs, I will have been back from my trip from Washington D.C., but I’m not back yet.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ooh! {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: That’s in the future, so we’ll talk about that in the following episode.

Diane Sanfilippo: We’ll go back to the future next episode.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know when we’re going to be able to get the next episode; I guess we’ll be able to do that right before I head out to Texas. Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Fingers crossed.

Diane Sanfilippo: Maybe. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Are you going to record the Mastermind, or make it available at any point after the fact?

Diane Sanfilippo: This is an excellent question. I do plan on recording it, I don’t know what I will do with it. It really depends on what ends up transpiring throughout the format, because we only have 25 people coming and then just a handful of women from the Balanced Bites team will be there as well. I guess it’s going to depend on how personal some of the stuff gets with some of our participants. But I might be able to find a way to make that available. Let me know; I want people to tell me over at http://BalancedBites.com if you comment on this episodes show notes post, let me know if you want me to make that available in some way. I’m not really sure what I’ll do with it.

Because it is a paid Mastermind, it might be something that is behind a payment so that I can let people kind of talk about the ideas and collaborate on that stuff separately, but I’m just not sure. Not sure yet; so we’ll see.

Liz Wolfe: Mm’kay.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

2. Shout out: Holly Marshall on Instagram [4:42]

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, we’ve got a shout out this week. We are shouting out Holly Marshall; a couple of Friday’s ago, by the time this episode is up, she posted a video at the gym doing a little tricky move with her caption “finishing off Friday with fitness”; finishing up? Finishing off? Finishing off Friday with fitness, three grip trifecta. She was doing a bunch of different pull-ups. And I love seeing that, and Holly, she was one of the 21-Day Sugar Detox coaches for a bit. I don’t know that she’s still a coach, she’s got so much going on I know. She’s just an awesome inspirational nutrition practitioner. I believe; I’m not sure if she’s an NC or an NTP; I think she’s an NC, so she went to Bauman.

And you guys can check her out over on Instagram at Holly_Marshall. She posts lots of awesome beautiful food pictures, just very realistic, as well as some inspirational stuff of what she’s doing in life at the gym, etc. and I like seeing that. She’s definitely a long, lean body type and I think the watch her kind of build her strength is inspirational. So I want you guys to check that out. And props to her for striving for more with her strength and sharing all of her amazing food photos and all that good stuff.

Liz Wolfe: Our podcast sponsorship today comes from Vital Choice, an online purveyor of the world’s best wild seafood delivered right to your door; because juggling a busy life shouldn’t mean you have to forgo healthy meals. At www.vitalchoice.com, you’ll find wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, tuna, sable fish, and cod, as well as prawns, crab, and scallops. You’ll also find grass-fed organic Wagyu beef, free range heritage chicken, fresh frozen organic berries, and dark organic chocolates. Make a vital choice by eating the highest quality food you can. Vital Choice; come home to real food. Use code BALANCEDBITES to save on your first order at www.vitalchoice.com.

3. Why are oils so important to avoid? [6:56]

Liz Wolfe: Very good. Well today we’re answering some more listener questions. Thanks again for stopping by the blogs. Although, I have to say we’re running into a little wrinkle where it’s like; you’re texted me, like, “Hey, somebody left a question for you on my website.”

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: And I’m like, “well can you tell them to come to my website and ask,” So, I don’t know. We’ll deal with it. We’ll figure it out.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think what we’ll do for those of you who do leave comments on http://BalancedBites.com on the show notes, we’ll try and collect those up as we have been into future episodes where we do some follow-up like we’re doing on these. But if it’s something super specific for Liz that you just want a personal answer to then definitely head over to http://RealFoodLiz.com and find somewhere {laughs} I guess to leave a comment about it, because my team is collecting up questions and follow ups for us to handle together, but obviously there are some that we can’t always get to and some that are super personal, so we want to find ways to help you guys, definitely on our blogs and comments is going to be the best way for us to keep track of that. So yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Alright. So here’s our first question. This one is from Susan. It’s from a comment on the podcast blog post. “So why are oils so important to avoid altogether compared to gluten or sugar when we eat out? I know you’re saying they’re invisible, so I get why the extra caution is needed, but are they inherently worse for our bodies than the other stuff, or can we also handle them once in a while. Thanks!”

My; this is a really interesting question, because I’ve in several places now, and recently, and for a long time, and in my books, I have said that damaged oils; and we’ve said this in the Balanced Bites workshops and in the upcoming Balanced Bites Master Class, we talk about it, that not only are oils something that we kind of forget about. Like she says, they’re kind of hidden in the food we eat when we go out to eat, we don’t necessarily know what types of oils they’re using in restaurants. I have a whole email that was just dedicated to staying safe oils wise when you’re eating at restaurants.

We talk about how important it is to pay attention to what types of fats and oils that you’re getting in your diet. And I think a lot of times when people go, say paleo or they start eating real food, well they’re thinking about getting rid of gluten, getting rid of wheat, getting rid of sugar and processed foods and all of that. And the good news with that is, when we eliminate processed foods and gluten containing foods and super sugary processed foods and that type of thing, we actually end up also eliminating a lot of really crappy oils. Industrial oils, oils like soybean, corn, cottonseed, highly processed polyunsaturated fats, which is really what we’re talking about when we’re talking about this. We’re talking about reducing your exposure to highly fragile, easily damaged, probably oxidized and highly processed industrial polyunsaturated oils. Which are, by nature, much more fragile than primarily monounsaturated oils like those from olive oil, or saturated fats, like those from coconut oil, ghee, butter oil, that type of thing.

So, we kind of, as a fringe benefit, just end up getting rid of these really fragile and yucky fats when we switch out our foods, but we may not necessarily recognize that that’s possibly why we actually feel better. So yeah, my opinion is, and this is just an opinion based on my experience, and Diane you might have an alternate perspective because you come from a different place as to why real food really worked for you and what it changed and what you needed to switch out, and your family history as well. But for me, I really think that polyunsaturated oils, the oils that we talk about avoiding, are probably inherently worse for most people than the other stuff. I think they are probably what has caused a lot of the chronic low-grade inflammation that people struggle with, and I think it’s probably what’s responsible for a lot of the ailments in the modern world; it’s just damaged, yucky fats.

Obviously, if you have celiac disease and autoimmune disease, eliminating gluten or any of those other triggers is hugely important. But I also think that ridding the diet of polyunsaturated fats that are damaged is probably the number one most important thing. And it’s the switch that I ask people to make if they’re willing to make absolutely no other switches. Did I make sense there?

Diane Sanfilippo: You did, and I’m actually with you. So a couple of points that I want to bring up here; one is what you just said, the very last thing. If someone is not going to switch anything else, one of the things that’s so important about this is that this is kind of broad sweeping across the board good nutrition advice, regardless of whether you want to eat animal foods, regardless of whether or not you want to eat gluten; getting healthy fats, replacing the unhealthy fats, is so critical. And it’s actually; it’s almost easier; obviously when we dine out it’s the hardest, but it’s a lateral shift for most people and it doesn’t take a ton of convincing most of the time to at least get people from the high PUFA content oils, like the cottonseed; not cottonseed. Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil; getting them from that over to olive oil, even avocado oil, stuff that’s more monounsaturated as kind of a step. Obviously, sometimes people are still scared of saturated fat, even though there’s no reason to be scared of it. But we can help people make that lateral shift, and it doesn’t matter if they want to eat paleo or not, it doesn’t matter if they want to eat vegan, even. You know?

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: So that’s one of the reasons why I think it is such an important topic to have as like a first step, just getting that oil changed. And, I don’t know all of the science about the way that our cells work. Look; you and I are nutritionists, we’re not biochemists. Maybe I can ask Robb Wolf about this, but this is something that I learned a long time ago as one of the foundational reasons why healthy fats are so critical, is that the lipid bilayer, what makes up our actual cell walls, is built partially on the fats that we’re eating, fats that we’re taking in. So from my perspective, it’s like; what are you building your house from? Are you building from potentially damaged fats, or are you building from healthy undamaged fats. And the process and the timing through which those cells kind of turnover, it’s not super quick.

So, in contrast perhaps; look, if there’s somebody who does know more about the detailed minutia science of this please let me know; but from what I understand, the epithelial cells, the cells that line our small intestine, they sort of change over a lot more quickly than perhaps some of our other cells that are built more on these fats.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: So to me, keeping these oxidized potentially inflammatory fats out of our bodies more is definitely important because we can just be a little bit more careful about that stuff. It’s easy to be careful about that at home; slightly less easy obviously when we dine out. But when we talk about trying to eat anti-inflammatory foods, and we talk about eating high antioxidant foods, we’re trying to combat inflammation in our bodies, but these oils are highly inflammatory for us.

So sure, we’re trying to avoid gluten, perhaps, but I feel like a lot of people get there with the grains and the gluten and all of that, and then you and I see this all the time and we’re not trying to be paleo perfectionists or the paleo police, but people are eating sweet potato fries all the time. And I don’t want to be the sweet potato fry hater, because they are delicious, but you really need to know what those oils are and then make an educated decision.

If you’re eating that once a week to the exclusion of every other food that’s cooked in oil, or fried somewhere else, and that’s a once a week insult that you’re willing to take as a hit to your system, you have to see how you feel with it, what have you, but that’s just the kind of thing where I just think people have blinders on to that a lot of the time, and they feel like because it’s not grains or because it’s paleo friendly they’re ignoring the fact that these oils are possibly even more harmful.

Again, this isn’t to make people feel like; oh my gosh, I have to be paralyzed, I can’t make any of these choices. But it’s about awareness and it’s about making an educated decision and an empowered decision. I know what this is, and I’m choosing to eat it. I’m going to let it affect my body how it’s going to, and move forward from there. Essentially, that’s all we’re trying to do here, is give people that information and support them in making that educated and empowered decision and not one that’s kind of; I don’t know, just in the dark where people are like; “ok, I know I’m supposed to avoid this and that.”

And the thing she said about them being invisible; it’s not that. Gluten’s the same way; sugar’s the same way. All that stuff is actually hard to identify when it’s added in perhaps trace amounts. You know. You know when you’re eat a piece of bread, but you don’t always know when you’re eating flour added to something.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: You know when you're eating a piece of cake, but you don’t always know when there is sugar added to sauces, etc.

Diane Sanfilippo: I hope you know when you’re smashing a piece of chocolate cake into your face. {laughs} But, and I’m with you too. I think our bodies are really well equipped to handle that little bit of sugar that we didn’t know was in a sauce for the most part, especially in a context of a really healthy diet overall. Obviously for people with celiac disease, a little bit of gluten is never ok. But for a lot of people, a little bit might be ok. And I do think that a little bit of damaged oils may be worse.

So I think that’s just all we were trying to say with that, is this is something that a lot of people almost ignore because, I don’t know, it becomes more painful in a sense. You know? Like, you give up gluten, you give up grains, and you’re like; I just want the dang sweet potato fries when I go out with my friends! I don’t want to make a big deal of this, right? And it feels like that’s approachable and easy to do. But we used to talk about this in the seminars all the time, and we talk about it in the Master Class. It was never the potato that was the problem, it was only ever the oil that it was cooked in.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: And even McDonald’s back in the day used to use lard until it became an issue with probably cost, and also folks who are vegetarian not wanting animal fats to be what their potatoes were cooked in. So, womp, womp. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Womp, womp.

Diane Sanfilippo: There we go.

Liz Wolfe: I think they used to use tallow.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, maybe. Yeah. Mmm, delish.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. So good.

Diane Sanfilippo: I really wonder if they were still using 100% tallow, would you and I be like drive through grabbing fries all the time? Possibly.

Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Thank god we don’t have to grapple with that.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: That decision.

Diane Sanfilippo: The big decisions of life.

4. pH balance of shampoo (versus no-poo) [18:14]

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Wow. Alright, this next one is from SuSu about pH balanced shampoo. This is from the podcast blog post as well. “Liz, I hear you keep recommending the baking soda and apple cider vinegar for hair, but I have used it and it ruined my hair. I researched and the pH of baking soda is too high for hair, especially when followed by low pH, ACV. I do use the ACV, but am wondering if you have any suggestions for a ph balanced shampoo. I have tried coconut milk, aloe vera, and apple cider vinegar, but didn't feel it worked well. I am currently using a health food store brand followed by ACV.”

Alright. So, I wanted to address this because I actually have read a ton on this method, and I even consulted a chemist about it, actually. And this; I don’t want to say it’s not what ruined your hair, because clearly, if that’s what you switched to and it messed up your hair, then that’s what happened. But, inherently, as a combination, the baking soda and apple cider vinegar is not too high/too low pH, it’s not something that’s just inherently dangerous for hair. Really, the alkalinity of baking soda is so transient, and it is immediately corrected with apple cider vinegar, and that’s actually why it works for a ton of people.

That said, I’m not questioning that this didn’t work for you, but no one thing works for everyone. And when I make a recommendation, I definitely make it with all of the information that I could possibly have. I don’t recommend things in a flippant manner. I don’t know if that’s the right word for it. But I just want to assure folks for whom this method is working that you’re not crazy, and it actually is working, and you’re good to go, and if it’s not working for you then don’t feel bad, just switch to something else.

I used the no-poo method for over 3 years. I have not been using it since I had the baby because I just; I have so much hair, and it takes a little bit of extra time to make sure that I get all the baking soda worked through, and really I just half the time I have to jump out of the shower halfway through anyway because somebody needs something from me, whether it be my presence or my boobs, and it’s just one of those things where I need to just foam up real quick, rinse it out, and move on with my life. So, I’ve just been using, just like she’s doing, health food store brands. I’ve used Desert Essence. I’ve also used Beautycounter’s shampoo and conditioner. I’ve used the EO brand of shampoo and conditioner; the lavender. It’s all fine. It’s all good.

And we’ve talked about this before on the podcast; that really, what I worry most about when it comes to advising people to switch to something different when we’re just talking about personal health; obviously environmental health is probably a different thing. I don’t know about rinsing all this stuff off and just having it end up in the environment, but that’s an entirely different question. When we’re just talking about our personal health, I’m less concerned about the stuff that we put on and then wash off than I am about the stuff that we put on and leave on, like lotion, especially makeup particularly color cosmetics which quite frequently are contaminated with metals and lead, even the natural ones, even mineral makeup.

So when it comes to shampoo and conditioner, I would not feel in any way concerned about using a health food store brand at all. Diane, what do you use for shampoo and conditioner?

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh jeeze, this is like,

Liz Wolfe: Redkin?

Diane Sanfilippo: My #firstworldproblem.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: My only complaint about having moved back to San Francisco was that somehow I didn’t realize when I lived here previously that the water is kind of soft, and so I’ve been using; and I have no idea about the healthfulness of this or not, but I’ve been using a salty shampoo bar from Lush.

Liz Wolfe: Ooh, fun.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, so it’s a bar and my hair is still pretty limp and flat so yeah, if anybody has more ideas about how to get more minerals into my hair. I do use a salt spray and all that stuff.

Liz Wolfe: You might like Primal Life Organics, she calls it Dirty Poo.

Diane Sanfilippo: I need something with a ton of minerals.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I was wondering if we could remineralize the water in our shower {laughs}. Like, can I put a water hardener head into my shower?

Liz Wolfe: That’s kind of funny. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s what I want. Somebody said I should wash my hair with mineral water, and I was like, that sounds expensive. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: That sounds like something Kim Kardashian does.

Diane Sanfilippo: Just dump a bottle of; I’m going to do it then.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m just kidding.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, do it. You know, so I was just thinking. I know a lot of people like Morocco Method, it wasn’t perfect for me but I know a ton of people love it, and the Dirty Poo from Primal Life Organics is really good. You can make your own dry shampoo. If you really want something crunchy, you can do that.

Diane Sanfilippo: What, make your own dry shampoo?

Liz Wolfe: Well, you or whomever. I’m using the royal “you” {laughs}.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ok.

Liz Wolfe: The royal we. If one wants something, more crunchy and possibly addressing your need for more minerals, that might be worth a try.

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, sounds good.

5. Night terrors and restless sleep habits [23:30]

Liz Wolfe: Report back. Ok. Next up; this is from Christina B about night terrors. “Dear Diane and Liz; I do not know if this is something you can help with, but I’m desperate for answers. Any help you can offer will be beyond appreciated. I absolutely love you two, and have been a fan for many years now. Thank you so much for all that you do. Before my husband and I were married, he would have night terrors. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, or jumping out of bed. He once even pulled the blinds off my window and broke a lamp on the bedside table. It was a very scary, and dare I say unnatural thing to get adjusted to, but it only happened once every couple of months so it was an ok trade off to be with him. He did see a doctor about the night terrors, but they suggested he be on antidepressants or SSRIs, to help with the infrequent problem, so he took that as there was nothing he could do. He started chiropractic school one and a half years ago, and ever since then his night terrors have not only become more frequent, but he’s now a very active sleeper. He clicks his teeth, makes noises, jolts in bed, and often aggressively sticks an elbow out, which often lands into my side.”

Just as an aside here, what we do to stay in the same bed as our loved ones; I feel like {laughs} I feel like this would warrant a, “hmm, I’m going to take my own bedroom for now,” type of thing.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: I’ve definitely been woken up by snoring like 10 times a night for 5 years now, and I just, at some point I was getting woken up by the kid and by the snoring, and I was like; you know what, I’m going to spend a little time in my own room.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I’m just going to take this blanket and go somewhere else.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} I’m going to be in that room. Anyway, let’s see; “I’m woken nightly by his movement and activity, occasionally he’ll wake up screaming aggressively but will have no memory of it in the morning. Needless to say, it’s taken a toll on our marriage. He’s embarrassed by the problem and doesn’t understand just how active he is because he does it all unconsciously, and he becomes very defensive when I try to talk to him about it. I wake up exhausted as I’m woken up between 5 and 10 times a night. It’s made for some really unpleasant morning arguments, as I often wake up feeling unrested, and he feels hopeless and defensive since he doesn’t know what to do about it. He refuses to go back to a doctor about the issue, for fear they will only try to prescribe medication.

He started yoga to help with stress reduction, but that doesn’t help either. He’s very active, works out 5 to 7 days per week, mostly Crossfit style. He eats mostly paleo but does have gluten a few times throughout the week. His meals are typically breakfast eggs, avocado, Ezekiel toast, coffee, and grass-fed butter or coconut oil; midday snack green smoothie sweetened with frozen berries; lunch meat, cooked veggies, salad, sometimes lasagna, he loves lasagna.” Who doesn’t? “Dinner, meat plus veggies. We’re getting to the point where we might have to start sleeping in two different rooms.”

Hey; I highly recommend that strategy, another little aside there. Here and there you’ve just got to get a full night sleep. The danger is maybe you’ll love it so much you’ll never want to go back. Just kidding, love you. I love my husband. Ok. “Which is sad especially since we’ve only been married for 10 months now. I’ve tirelessly searched online for a solution, but have come up extremely short. I don’t know if I’m looking in the wrong places or if this is an uncommon issue. We’re desperate for a natural solution to this problem, whether it’s a blend of herbs, oils, or supplements. Do either of you have any feedback or suggestions? Again, thank you for all you do.”

Ok, I don’t have a ton of counsel on this point; part of the reason that we popped this question into the podcast this week is because I’m sure somebody out there that listens to the show can come stop by the blog post once this podcast episode airs and let us know maybe what they did that was successful. My instinct would be, knowing very little about the pathology, the biology of night terrors, is to get magnesium and iron tested. Because I just kind of have this hunch that this could be in some way related to maybe a magnesium deficiency with an excess of bodily iron. So I would probably just go to requestatest.com or direct labs or something and get red blood cell magnesium ordered as well as your ferritin iron, iron binding capacity blood test, and just see where you are iron-wise and magnesium-wise. I think iron overload is probably a huge, huge issue in the modern world, especially for men. It’s just natural that we lose blood, you know, if we were back in caveman days we’d all be bleeding a little bit more, and that’s actually probably a really functional way that our bodies unload excess iron. So that’s something I would definitely check out.

Other than that; I mean, really that’s all I got. Diane, what are you thinking?

Diane Sanfilippo: I had just a couple of thoughts on the food front, which would be very, very easy to try and I think worth it. I do think that at some point, going to see a medical maybe a naturopathic medical professional doesn’t have to be kind of a conventional MD if you are concerned about getting prescribed medication, because even a naturopath could prescribe some supplements, perhaps, that would be helpful. You know, different natural approaches. I would just keep that in mind. I think a lot of times when we are so health oriented and health minded, we are dismissive of things that could really help the quality of life that we have.

So I’m just putting that out there. I think there is a time and a place for that medical or naturopathic medical intervention, and this sounds extreme enough to me that I wouldn’t be dismissive of it. This is really a big thing that’s kind of taking its toll on your relationship. I think that in the long run could be a really big issue.

So on the food front, what I wanted to just recommend which would be really easy, I think, is to do a strict gluten elimination for a month. Now, when I say that, at this point I don’t think he has to do it to be paleo, strict paleo for the month, I would just be really curious about gluten specifically. Now, I definitely don’t think everyone is intolerant to gluten, but I do think there are weird things that can happen to people who, when they pull the gluten out, they’re like; this crazy thing I was experiencing went away. I don’t claim to understand and be able to explain all the mechanisms for that, but if there’s something going on that could be potentially autoimmune, there could be something going on with neurotransmitters. He might not be making and producing appropriate neurotransmitters for restful sleep, that’s going to be not only amino acids like tryptophan and; I’m sorry. Neurotransmitters like serotonin, melatonin, having all of that produced properly. The weird thing about gluten is if you have an autoimmune response to it, it actually can affect any body cells, any tissues, any cells, any type of compound in the body. So it could be affecting this part of his brain chemistry that’s affecting his sleep.

So I’m just putting it out there as like; look, it’s not that hard to go gluten free strictly for a month, and just try it. And with that, I would say do some gluten free oats, do a gluten free something or other. Look for the healthiest options. Obviously, we don’t want junky ingredients, but I don’t think at this point it needs to be a strict paleo thing to get that test going. And alongside that, I would have him eating a lot more carbs. If he’s working out 5 to 7 days a week, I don’t really see a lot of carbs in what you told me that he’s eating other than some Ezekiel toast, which isn’t going to be a ton, even if he’s having two slices of that, “meat and veggies and salad; occasional lasagna”, ok if that’s occasional, but I’m going to ask that he not have that for a little while or maybe you order some of the Capello’s lasagna noodles and you make one that’s homemade. Make a big batch, freeze it so you can have it a few times throughout that gluten free month.

I want to see what happens if he gets a lot more carbs in his diet, because that could actually affect a ton with his sleep. Those are the two things I would try right away on the food front. Really nixing the gluten, just do it for a month. Do it for the test, it’s not that big of a deal. And upping his carbs. And I want to see him eating like 200 grams of carbs a day, which is probably nowhere near what he’s doing now. The way it sounds, he’s probably maybe getting 75 grams a day. Maybe up to 100, but I want to see him getting at least 200 grams of carbs, maybe 250, and doing that with something like gluten free steel cut oats or white rice, getting that in is going to be a lot easier. A cup of white rice with a meal is pretty delicious if you can do it.

So that’s what I would recommend, and I definitely want to hear back from Christina about this. I want them to do something about this pretty soon. And look, eating more; I think that’s the easiest thing to start doing. Just eating more of something. So see what happens, and please come back and let us know. We definitely want to hear what’s happening on this.

Liz Wolfe: The Balanced Bites podcast is sponsored in part by the Nutritional Therapy Association. The NTA trains and certifies nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants, including me, I’m an NTP, emphasizing bio-individuality and the range of dietary strategies that support wellness. The NTA emphasizes local, whole, properly prepared nutrient dense foods as the key to restoring balance and enhancing the body’s ability to heal. Nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants learn a wide range of tools and techniques to assess and correct nutritional imbalances. To learn lots more about the nutritional therapy program, go to NutritionalTherapy.com. There are workshop venues in the US, Canada, and Australia, so chances are you’ll be able to find a venue that works for you.

6. Loose skin after weight loss [33:41]

Liz Wolfe: Ok, this one is from Michelle. Loose skin after weight loss. “A little background first. I’ve just started eating gluten free and watching my sugar intake. I try to only eat natural foods. I’m not quite paleo, because I do have butter and heavy cream in my coffee.” Dear Michelle; we have put those long, long ago on the paleo approved list. I’m giving you a thumbs-up on those. “I will also eat full fat cheese on occasion. My question is about my skin. After my huge weight loss, I have loose skin in my arms, thighs, and mainly my stomach. It’s getting a little better, and I know I can’t expect it to go away overnight, but I’m feeling quite discouraged about it. When I talked to a dermatologist, he said my only option was surgery. I don’t really want to undergo surgery, and I feel like there has to be a way to help my skin through nutrition. Any thoughts?”

I think, to my knowledge, there are not a whole lot of options around this issue. Again, to my knowledge. Maybe there’s something that I don’t know about that is going to work. But I think the best you can really do is give it some time, number one. This does happen when you lose weight quickly. Give it some time. It’s possible that the building blocks of collagen could have an impact here, so maybe make sure you’re getting some good collagen with vitamin C; that could be a good way to support your skin from the inside. Make sure you get adequate vitamin A, fat soluble vitamins in general.

And I think a lot of strategies around this will actually be topical. And Diane, I see you making a couple of notes here, so I’ll let you say those things, but, I don’t know. If this were me, I might look into some kind of topical lotion, maybe with caffeine to apply a couple of times a day to help I guess stimulate and tighten the skin. Any product like that is probably not going to be natural. And I probably wouldn’t use it if I was pregnant or breastfeeding or trying to get pregnant or anything like that. But you know, it might be worth a try. There are some very scientifically based products out there that usually are targeted towards cellulite; and that’s a whole nother discussion about our fear and prejudice against cellulite. But a lot of these products that are targeted toward cellulite might have some of the actives or the compounds that could help stimulate your skin from the outside, and that might be worth trying, but they’re not super natural. Skinactives.com I think has something that you could try. But other than that, I’m pretty stumped on this one.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mmm. Yeah, I think, I was definitely going to say from a food and internal perspective, the collagen could be one of the things, but I just don’t see that being super effective for this kind of rapid fat loss, rapid weight loss and the excess skin versus; you know, we talk about collagen helping with loose skin or wrinkles and things like that, that’s a much smaller level. A microlevel, wrinkles are a much smaller change in our skin texture than rapid fat loss would be.

But I think; I know you’ve recommended dry brushing to me for just skin vitality and all of that, I don’t know if that can be helpful for this situation. I feel like, unfortunately for Michelle, the dry brushing, the collagen, all of that would be something to do while you’re in a fat loss mode. You know, while you’re starting a fat loss plan and you’re expecting to lose a lot of body weight, and a lot of volume from your body; something to just keep in mind for those of you who might be on that journey now, is to be doing dry brushing every day. You can just Google dry brushing, you’ll see what it is, and kind of how to do. And to be taking these collagen supplements to help prevent this issue, you know what I mean?

And I think part of it, too, is when we do lose weight that quickly, our body just cannot respond as quickly as we want it to in terms of our skin adapting. One thing I know could be helpful, that’s definitely an expensive endeavor although noninvasive and also not as expensive, I’m sure, as surgery would be would be something like a radiofrequency treatment. I have a friend here in San Francisco who does this type of treatment. She does a lot of different detox things, and runs; she actually runs a colonic clinic here in San Francisco, but she also has some work that she does with clients who are looking for things like that, skin tightening and skin surface improvement, all of that. So radiofrequency is something that you might want to look into. Again, it’s noninvasive, it’s something that’s basically; it seems like an ultrasound type of thing so it’s just on the skin, and I do not know any potential other downsides to that or negative health impacts. I think it’s pretty minimal in that sense. But it is supposed to basically help your skin naturally increase collagen production; collage and elastin. So that’s something else I would say maybe look into.

And look, sometimes there are questions that we get that we want to address because we want to let you guys know that there may not be a ton of other information, and also to get feedback from those of you who are listening if you’ve got something else to share with Michelle, for example. So, you know, just because there are questions that we don’t have a ton of answers to, sometimes we do still like to bring them on the show to just bring the topic to light. So, whatever else you guys might know about this, if anybody has gone through it. If anybody has gone through rapid fat loss, rapid weight loss and has done something to improve the texture and appearance of their skin that wasn’t surgery, definitely let us know.

Liz Wolfe: You know, I would probably do something radiofrequency related before I would spend a crap-ton of money on topicals, now that I think about it. Because that type of stuff you just have to do over and over multiple times a day for a long period of time.

Diane Sanfilippo: The topicals?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, I would definitely weigh out the cost of doing that frequently and consistently over time with the…

Diane Sanfilippo: Radiofrequency.

Liz Wolfe: More interesting treatments.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think radiofrequency; yeah, it could cost, definitely, in the thousands of dollars. I don’t know, depending on where you live and what the availability of it might be. But it’s not an inexpensive treatment; I just think it’s definitely worth looking into, because I personally like the idea of something that’s noninvasive and something that encourages your own body to do what it can do. So from that perspective I like it, you know, it’s just kind of egging your body on to do what you want it to do. The thing that it couldn’t do fast enough on its own.

7. A little sugar with your caffeine [40:57]

Liz Wolfe: Alrighty. Ok, this one is from Barb. Coffee and sugar. “Liz, I’m curious if you could share where you read that coffee with a little fat and sugar can mitigate the negative impact. I’m mostly curious about the sugar component. Thank you!”

So I talked about this a couple of podcasts ago, and I hope that I was tentative enough in what I said. I cannot remember exactly what I said; Diane, do you remember? Where I was like; I think there might be some evidence that maybe suggests that we can mitigate the potential negative effects by adding sugar.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} I don’t remember how tentatively you said it.

Liz Wolfe: Ok. I hope I was somewhat tentative.

Diane Sanfilippo: I didn’t get up and immediately add sugar to the coffee I had been drinking, but I definitely felt less hesitant about the one teaspoon that I tend to add to the one coffee I have a day.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: So.

Liz Wolfe: Ok. Well, alright. So we know a couple of things just about how our bodies work in a stress state. So this is me kind of extrapolation from a very interesting study on mice, as well as putting together some of what we know about the stress state of the body and what can help alleviate that state. And kind of putting those together and thinking; huh. I think this makes sense. So sometimes we do that. Sometimes I can’t hand you a study of people that added fat and sugar to their coffee and did better. {laughs} I don’t think that’s what Barb wanted, but just saying.

Diane Sanfilippo: I can complete an n=1 experiment if you’d like me to.

Liz Wolfe: Yes please.

Diane Sanfilippo: For the sake of science, only for the sake of science. {laughs} Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Please do. Well, n=1 for me, I actually would have a little bit of postural hypertension just drinking straight coffee or coffee with cream in it. When I started adding some sugar; and I don’t even like sugar in my coffee, it actually makes it taste less appealing to me to do so. But it actually alleviated that, so that was when I was like; there’s something to this.

The mouse study was; basically caffeine was administered to mice and what was seen with just the caffeine alone was some growth retardation in the mouse babies; the babies of the mice. The meeses. The little baby mice. But when they added sucrose and administered sucrose with the caffeine, then all of those effects were completely diminished. So when I look at that, I can kind of see how that makes sense, and also see how that may be translatable to overall health in the human model, since really anything that affects a fetus is clearly affecting the mother, in this case probably via an activation of the stress system with caffeine alone, something like that. So that was really interesting to run across.

Other than that, I think what folks need to realize is that sugar, in the proper amounts, is massively anti-stress. So if you’re in stress mode and you give your body a little bit of glucose, that could really, really help mitigate the effects, the cause of this chronic cortisol dump. So it’s kind of why Gatorade is; well, not Gatorade, but recovery drinks with a little bit of glucose are helpful. I think I was going to add something about that; let me see. I feel like I made notes on something at some point about salts and glucose. But now I can’t find it.

Anyway, it’s just one of those things I think what’s happening is really the stress system is deactivated a little bit with the addition of glucose. And I think that’s worth doing if you can tolerate it. I think sugar, there’s definitely that too-little/too-much curve.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: And I think we’re really skewing too little for a lot of people at this point.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, this is something people ask me about, too, with the 21-Day Sugar Detox where you know they finish the detox and they’re feeling really good; I tell people all the time, I’m not secretive about the fact that I will put a teaspoon of honey in tea if I get tea when I’m out somewhere, or if I’m making my coffee at home I put a teaspoon of maple syrup or something like that, because in the context of what you’re doing all day that teaspoon doesn’t typically drive things out of whack. It’s not that that’s the problem; but when you’re doing a challenge, part of it is just the habit of constantly dumping sugar into your drink and maybe not being as mindful about the way that impacts your entire day for some people who might then be eating waffles with syrup; everything you’re eating thereafter has tons of sugar in it. So when we talk about it in this context of a teaspoon, or two, or whatever the case. A teaspoon of sugar is only about 4 or 5 grams of carb. So, that’s not very much.

Liz Wolfe: Right.

Diane Sanfilippo: One thing, and I wanted to note this too. When you just kind of talked about carbs and stress and all of that; whenever I’m dealing with a big project or a high stress situation, which is kind of right now, I definitely do not avoid carbs. It’s a known thing for me that I could be working all day, not physically but writing something or working on a project and I can tell that my brain was burning carbohydrate, because I am hungry for the carbs. It just feels different, and I know that people often we’re talking about ketogenic diets being extremely beneficial for brain health or brain activity and that’s fine for some people; I think there’s just different strokes for different folks, and for people who are dealing with these stress situations and curious about bits of sugar in their coffee or carbohydrate; I know we’re talking specifically about sugar in coffee for this question, but I do think it can be extrapolated out kind of bigger.

I’m curious too, if you think that some of the people asking about sugar in coffee; could some of these issues be mitigated by just eating a meal with carbs in it alongside drinking the coffee?

Liz Wolfe: I don’t know.

Diane Sanfilippo: So if you’re drinking the coffee and you’re getting some of that; I mean, you’re talking about sucrose, which is really table sugar, versus glucose specifically.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: You know, so I don’t know. I’m just curious here too.

Liz Wolfe: I guess, yeah. Sucrose, I think it’s glucose that has the primary beneficial effect. So whether it’s sucrose, as long as it’s glucose-containing. I think that’s probably what’s important. So that’s a really interesting point, because I do think people are just maybe skipping breakfast and drinking a bunch of coffee all day and it’s probably causing problems, in which case; yeah, you probably need to eat something, and have that contain carbs.

But then again, if you’re in a stress state and you know that, it’s very possible. Like we talk about this in the Master Class; it’s very possible that your digestion is compromised and it’s going to take a really, really long time to deploy the macronutrients from whatever it is that you eat to your bodily systems.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mmm.

Liz Wolfe: So it’s kind of like; well, that’s kind of why I like orange juice so much.

Diane Sanfilippo: Give it the end useable form.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I mean that’s one of the reasons why sometimes taking a vitamin supplement is effective, because instead of trying to digest and absorb it from your food; you know it’s one of the reasons when I talked about Nutrience, the vitamin supplement for example, it’s a liquid form, it’s vitamins that you’re basically absorbing right away. You don’t have to go through that digestive process, so yeah. Interesting. Yeah, maybe there’s something to that.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, and I think for people who are active and eating a good breakfast, I don’t think; I don’t know that this would apply to the people trying to do the butter/coconut oil coffee where there’s tons of fat in there already. Like a splash or a little bit of the heavy cream that you might have been talking about with some sugar; we’re not talking about multiple tablespoons of pure fat, plus multiple teaspoons of sugar. I don’t know, I think these little bits added can be doing something beneficial, but I don’t know if now we’re just making it into melted coffee ice cream {laughs} or what’s happening. Or would that be beneficial? {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so that wraps up our questions for this episode. How about a try this at home. Diane, do you have one?

Diane Sanfilippo: I do.

Liz Wolfe: Ok.

Diane Sanfilippo: So based on what we were talking about with our fats and oils in the first question of this episode, let’s do a pantry clean out and let’s start with the junky oils. Let’s focus on any junky oils that we have and any packaged items that we might have that have the junky oils; maybe move on to some of the other stuff that’s in our pantry, any packaged goods that we just have around since before we changed what we were eating. Maybe old expired spices; just things that are not potent anymore, and make some replacements. Make a list of what you want to replace, and get the new and improved, so you have that handy the next time you go to the grocery store. If you guys want healthy shopping lists for, I think we have close to 20 stores, go to healthyshoppinglists.com. You can get my healthy shopping list.

And, if you’ve got a copy of Practical Paleo or if you grab the guides at http://BalancedBites.com/practicalpaleo you can use my fats and oils guide there to learn about what are the best fats to be eating, best fats to be cooking with, and which ones to ditch. So it’s a which to eat, which to ditch, and it shows you for cold applications and for cooking, and that will really help you. And I definitely want to see pictures, if anybody is cleaning out their pantry, I want to see pictures of the pile of stuff that was left that you just shoved to the back of the pantry; that Gold Medal flour, {laughs} that bottle of Wesson corn oil that you just didn’t throw away because you weren’t sure what to do with it. Although I think there could be some household uses for these things {laughs}. I think we can maybe oil furniture with some of the vegetable oil; somebody can let me know.

But that’s what I want you guys to do. A pantry clean out; get rid of the junk. Show us {laughs} show us your junk. Let us know.

Diane Sanfilippo: I really want to see; I really want to see pictures of a table of junk that people are getting rid of. That would make me pretty pumped. Wouldn’t you want to see it? I want to see it.

Liz Wolfe: I don’t know.

9. #Treatyoself: frozen peaches with coconut milk [52:10]

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright Liz. It’s time for a treat yoself. I want to know what your treat yoself is this week.

Liz Wolfe: What I’m treat yoselfing with?

Diane Sanfilippo: What you treat yoselfing yoself to? {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Oh man. So I’m loving frozen peaches.

Clip: Three words for you; Treat. Yo. Self.

Liz Wolfe: With coconut milk. I order coconut milk from Golden Star Trading, because it’s impossible to find coconut milk without some kind of gum or something else in it around here, so I order the Golden Star Trading coconut milk; thus far, it still seems to just be coconut. And I’ll take some frozen peach slices out of the freezer and put them on the counter for like 10 or 15 minutes so they kind of unfreeze, but not really.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.

Liz Wolfe: And I top them with coconut milk, and it is so good!

Diane Sanfilippo: That sounds awesome. I think I was doing that with frozen cherries for a while; also awesome. The texture of both of those is like kind of creamy for fruit, if that makes sense.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s really good. So, another thing you could do is sprinkle some coconut on top of that; that would also be delicious. I want to eat that. Yes, we have frozen peaches here. I’m going to do it.

Alright, I just confirmed with my friend who uses radiofrequency with her clients, and she says, “It will tighten up loose skin like nobody’s business.” And I quote. {laughs} So, there we go.

Liz Wolfe: Alright, that’s it for this week. You can find me, Liz, at https://realfoodliz.com/ and you can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com. Join our email lists for free goodies and updates that you don’t find anywhere else on our websites or on the podcast. While you’re on the internet, please leave us an iTunes review; it really, really helps. See you next week.

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